[4] The first Clydesdale player to represent Scotland was William Gibb, who played against England in 1873, scoring a goal.

[5] The club's fortune took a turn for the better in November 1873 after a dispute within Queen's Park led to international player Frederick Anderson joining Clydesdale,[6] soon followed by a number of players, including internationals Robert W Gardner, who had been the Scottish captain, and David Wotherspoon, who had been the best man at his wedding.

[11] After half-an-hour of the final, with the scores goalless, a Raeburn shot was fumbled by Dickson in the Queen's Park goal, and the ball "dribbled through between himself and the goalpost" with the spectators behind the goal unanimous in saying that "we all saw definitely – and had not the very slightest doubt – that the ball passed off the goalkeeper's hands between the posts".

[13] Early in the second half, with the wind behind Queen's Park, Billy MacKinnon gave the senior club the lead with "a powerful shot after a superb individual run".

Robert Leckie scored Queen's Park's second goal with a shot not long before time was called.

The club had had a walkover against Vale of Leven in the first round, as Clydesdale protested the presence of John Ferguson before the tie, who, as a former professional athlete, was barred from playing in the competition at the time,[15] even though Ferguson was described as an amateur who "usually wrought in the Vale of Leven from year to year, and no objection was made to him in the international match";[16] the tie was played under protest, and, after a goalless draw, Vale withdrew rather than re-play.